


Where music and lyrics define hope

by muffin_reverie



Series: Catalyst defined in a relationship [1]
Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 17:26:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6433552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muffin_reverie/pseuds/muffin_reverie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maya Hart doesn’t wish on shooting stars or shiny pennies thrown into wishing wells, she doesn’t even believe that she could place her hopes on the flames of a bunch of colorful candles atop a birthday cake. Maya Hart doesn’t think much of hope, because she knew that it has nothing on her...so she really wasn’t expecting much when she stopped at a neighborhood jazz café, a quintessential form of coffee, bagels and music in a rustic brown interior and vintage wood tables, in the midway of her quiet walk home with Josh after the evening at Riley’s and on the evening the 17 year old was to return home – and he too paused in his steps as she peered into the windows of the café.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where music and lyrics define hope

Maya Hart doesn’t wish on shooting stars or shiny pennies thrown into wishing wells, she doesn’t even believe that she could place her hopes on the flames of a bunch of colorful candles atop a birthday cake. Maya Hart doesn’t think much of hope, because she knew that it has nothing on her.  
  
“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed,” she had once whispered from the corners of the public library, from a book held tightly in her hands as her tears gently rolled down her cheeks. She had only been seven but she knew that hope had evaded her completely from the moment her father physically left her and her mother left her too – emotionally. Maya closed the book and drew it to her chest as she quietly sobbed her little heart out, and determined that perhaps it was time she discarded the childish belief that hope made everything alright.  
  
So she really wasn’t expecting much when she stopped at a neighborhood jazz café, a quintessential form of coffee, bagels and music in a rustic brown interior and vintage wood tables, in the midway of her quiet walk home with Josh after the evening at Riley’s and on the evening the 17 year old was to return home – and he too paused in his steps as she peered into the windows of the café.  
  
She certainly didn’t dare think that Josh would follow after her, but she heard his footsteps behind her all the same, though she said nothing as she found an empty table for two and sat down in one of the chairs. Her ocean blue eyes took a sweeping glance around the place, it was almost closing time, and stopped when she caught sight of the acoustic guitars by the makeshift stage. Without saying a word to Josh, she made her way to the stage and stood by it. Pensively staring at a dark mahogany guitar with a vintage sunburst finishing, Maya hummed a tune in the back of her throat as she imagined her fingers on the fretboard. She closed her eyes for a moment, her mind drawing out the chords to a song she had heard from one day in a year before on the ride up to Columbia County. Music notes were placed on ensembles of staff as Maya wrote the tune in her head.  
  
“Play the guitar much?” Maya turned around to see a lady in checkered shirt and jeans smiling at her. “Feel free to pick it up and strum a few chords.”  
  
“You don’t mind?” Maya asked, slightly incredulous.  
  
“Not at all. It drew you in here, didn’t it?”  
  
“Well,” Maya began to feel self-conscious but she soldiered on anyway with the faintest of shrugs, “I guess I enjoy playing the guitar when there’s a chance.”  
  
“I take it you don’t get to play often.”  
  
“It was a luxury.” Maya admitted. “Until my best friend gave me her grandmother’s.”  
  
The lady nodded with a thoughtful look crossing her features before sidestepping Maya to pick up one of the guitars from the stage, the one that Maya had her eye on few minutes before. “Things usually work out when we least expect it to.” She handed the guitar to Maya. “Sometimes we don’t get what we want because the timing isn’t right yet, but when the time does come – we appreciate it a little more.”  
  
Maya allowed the words to sink in. She took a deep breath and allowed a small smile spread across her lips as her fingers gingerly reached out for the guitar, “Thanks.”  
  
“Anytime.”  
  
Maya sat down at one of the stools on the stage and gently strummed the first chord to the song in her head. She briefly wondered if the words of the lady held any truth within them. Those words held hope within the context, and for Maya – that didn’t sit too well. It wasn’t that her life was horrible beyond repair of any consolation, she had Riley and the rest of the Matthews, and of course her mother, Farkle, and Shawn too; but Maya Hart had always lived each day as it arrived with the morning. She doesn’t think ahead to prepare or worry for anything, because all of it just led to hope. Timing, fate, possibilities, anything along the similar lines were simply tossed out of Maya’s window of reality.  
  
Immersed in her own world of chords and tune, Maya shut down all her other senses as she played the musical instrument in her hands. Still, there was something – or rather someone, that she was very much aware of.  
  
He was the exception.  
  
Joshua Matthews.  
  
She knew him when she had only been five and him at eight. He had been exceptionally kind and attentive; building a sandcastle with her in the gardens under the glow of a sunset, drawing penguins together during one of the afternoons of large fluffy clouds dotting the bright blue sky overhead, sitting beside her on the swings with his favorite ice cream flavor to share with, and holding her hand as they gleefully ran under the rare summer raindrops.  
  
He was the epitome of hope.  
  
Blue eyes finally turned their attention to the boy who had followed her in. A kind smile touched his lips as he stood up and walked over to her, joining her on the stage and picking up the other acoustic guitar from its stand.  
  
“You don’t have to do this.” She quietly said over the strums of her own guitar.  
  
“I want to.”  
  
“You do know that you’re only putting things in my head that aren’t supposed to be there.”  
  
Josh shook his head. “Maya, don’t think of anything right now. Just immerse yourself in this moment.”  
  
So she did, she looked away from him and continued with her song, softly singing the first words to the song. She kept her eyes trained on the now empty café before them, her voice gliding over the words to carry them forth across the stage and beyond. The accompaniment of his guitar chords didn’t fazed her as she continued to sing – that was until she reached the second to last chorus verse.  
  
“ _That I‘m young and foolish, I don’t know about much, but I know that this could be love…_ ”  
  
“ _Yes I’m young and foolish, foolish enough to know wherever you go, I´ll follow you._ ” His voice continued the rest of the chorus for her.  
  
Maya couldn’t help but gave in to the small, wistful upwards curve of her lips as she met Josh’s gaze. The lyrics faltered from their voices as only the strumming tune from the guitars replaced them. It continued to the last bar and chord, but instead of stopping and putting the guitar away, Josh continued with a new chord. She has only heard it once, recognizing it as one of the songs from his playlist during the one time he shared his iPod’s earbuds with her – she had been eleven and he was fourteen, and it had been from the last summer that she followed Riley back to her best friend’s grandparents’ home in Philadelphia. It had been a Friday and she wandered into his room, about to ask him if she could borrow his skateboard when he looked up from the book he was reading with the iPod beside him. He convinced her to sit with him after promising he would teach her how to actually skate without hurting herself like she did at Farkle’s 8th birthday party. She ended up spending the entire afternoon listening to Josh’s favorite playlist as he explained what he liked about each song – she will never forget the way his eyes revealed the earnest excitement within him, the casual innocence of a young boy who was documenting his world with music.  
  
The words were musingly sad with a hint of longing as the lyrics followed Josh’s strumming. “ _And it’s a lottery, I can’t wait to get your name. I’m trying to get to you, but time isn’t on my side._ ”  
  
Maya drew a sharp breath in as Josh kept looking at her with the words tumbling from his lips. She said nothing however, and allowed him to keep playing the song of his. Throughout the song, he never took his eyes off Maya’s countenance, and the small little voice within her spoke the words into her heart – that he may never look away from her.  
  
When Josh’s strumming met the last chord of his song, Maya’s fingers instinctively found the fretboard and she picked up from his last note. She wasn’t sure if he remembered the song, but it was one that she had danced to with him during Morgan’s graduation party – a special celebration the Matthews had in New York as the only girl in the Matthews siblings graduated with top honors.  
  
“ _There's something in your voice, makes my heart beat fast. Hope this feeling lasts, the rest of my life._ ”  
  
Josh smiled, and she knew then that he remembered. They had small arms and legs, but he tried to lead her anyway with his bright-eyed grin as she tried to watch from beneath her long sun-kissed curls on the way their small feet tried to keep up with the song – and how his blue Converse-clad feet made sure she wouldn’t stumble and fall.  
  
She sang to the second chorus and decided to let it fade out, thinking that perhaps she should stop. Josh seemed to think otherwise however as he played a new song from his guitar. Tears prickled at the edge of her eyes as the song carried every bit of the emotion she had been avoiding – hope and promises.  
  
“ _Tomorrow morning when you wake up and the future isn’t clear, I – will be here. As shorter seasons were made for change, and lifetimes were made for years so I will be here._ ”Josh sang out, allowing his voice to carry the quiet promises as Maya tried to steel her heart, but the words came knocking anyway before crashing onto the doors of her guard to flood right through.  
  
She had caught him singing to the song when he was washing the dishes in the Matthews’ home during one of those days of summer just a few short months ago. He was spending time in New York for his pre-university program, and she had been more than euphoric to know that he would be around for longer this time. Things were already different between them, no longer the innocence between just friends, as she had already harbored feelings for him that were beyond platonic. However, instead of asking her to leave when he noticed her standing by the dining table, he only smiled at her and continued singing as she sat there, simply listening to him as he washed the dishes and she dried them with the dish towel. She held no expectations then, simply basking in his presence and appreciating the moment that time offered them. There was a brief moment when their fingers touched and she felt the tingle as if sprinkles of stardust cascaded over her; all Maya could do was to smile to herself and store the memory as a favorite in the corners of her heart. He had stood by the sink, singing – as if it was all only for her, and to let her know that Maya Penelope Hart will never be alone, no matter what she tried telling herself otherwise.  
  
As the last words left Josh, Maya found herself picking up where he left off, strumming a new chord of her own to respond. The moment the first chord filled the room, she saw his features turning into a grin. It was one of the most recognizable songs, a classic even, and it was also the first song she picked up with the guitar because it was the first song she had heard him playing to when she had just turned 10 and he had came to New York with his parents for a visit. He had sang it to her after the small but memorable birthday celebration that Cory and Topanga threw for her, and it was in the revered bay window that she shared with Riley for all their moments. She sat beside him, watching in amazement as the 13 year old Joshua Matthews sang in his prepubescent voice and a large guitar almost hiding his lanky frame. The way he looked at Maya had been in fondness, but she never knew that, all she had understood from that moment was that music is the next best thing to art and Joshua Matthews. It was what she needed to take her away from the unkindness and disappointment of the world – just like what art and Josh were to her.  
  
“ _And all the roads we have to walk are winding, and all the lights that lead us there are blinding._ ” Maya didn’t quite realized it as she got to the chorus that she was crying, the words fumbling through as she tried her hardest to keep her gaze on the boy sitting opposite, “ _Because maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me. And after all, you're my wonderwall._ ”  
  
“Maya,” she watched as Josh placed his guitar down and she held her smile in place despite the saltiness she was tasting from her tears, “Maya – it’s okay.”  
  
She finally stopped strumming and allowed Josh to pull her into his arms.  
  
“It’s okay to believe, and it’s okay to hope.”  
  
“But you keep saying you are too old for me.” Maya sniffled out.  
  
“But you say you are in it for the long game. That’s because you believe, you are willing to put your heart out there and wait for it to come around.” Josh pulled back and looked at her in the eyes. “No matter what you keep telling yourself, Maya, hopes aren’t foolish. I think you knew that long ago, and to be honest, I don’t want you to lose hope, in yourself – or in us.”  
  
“Three years.”  
  
“What’s that in another few years and you are eighteen?” He said, earning a burst of a small, incredulous yet amused smile from Maya as she recognized the phrase from one of the college girls she met with the other day. “Maybe it’s not right now for us, but we can always hope that it will be someday.”  
  
“Someday.” She repeated.  
  
“Someday.” He promised.  
  
Maya Hart realized that wishing on shooting stars or shiny pennies thrown into wishing wells, or the flames of a bunch of colorful candles atop a birthday cake, may have been silly, but trusting and believing someone who has been a constant in her life, in so many ways – and having as much hope in her, isn’t really stupid after all.  
  
She had never really given up on hope, and it never really left her – because it came in the form of Joshua Matthews from the moment he stepped into her life and she in his.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a first for me in the fandom, and it's been a while since I wrote, and published on a public space for anyone to leave their thoughts. A mixture of anticipation and worry, but here goes this in the appreciation of this charming ship. This sets off a few others drabbles in a chronological series, but each one serves to be stand-alone as well. Thanks for dropping by to read this :)
> 
> Disclaimer: Characters belong to the wonderful world of Disney, and the creators of Girl Meets World/Boy Meets World, and all lyrics are from the rightful artistes and songwriters


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